Cryptocurrency Market Recap for June

The cryptocurrency market experienced a setback in June, with the total market cap decreasing by 8% to approximately $2.25 trillion, erasing most of the gains from the previous month, according to a research report by JPMorgan.

Analyst Kenneth Worthington noted that tokens, decentralized finance (DeFi), and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) all witnessed a contraction in their market cap during June.

Contrary to the performance of the cryptocurrency market, traditional markets such as the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq saw gains of 4% and 6% respectively in June. In comparison, the CoinDesk 20 index fell by almost 20% during the same period.

Despite the overall decline in the crypto market, stablecoins stood out by outperforming other digital assets. The market cap of stablecoins remained flat to slightly higher, with tether (USDT) being a significant driver of this appreciation.

Bitcoin miners, on the other hand, were an exception to the downward trend. The total market cap of publicly listed bitcoin miners increased by 19% in June, thanks to gains from “artificial intelligence-related power use cases.” Notably, Core Scientific (CORZ) recently signed a 12-year, 200 megawatt (MW) deal with CoreWeave, a cloud computing firm, which led to a sector-wide re-rating and a surge in mergers and acquisitions.

JPMorgan’s data indicates a decline of up to 18% in daily spot crypto trading volumes compared to the previous month. The report suggests that March 2024 marked the peak for the current cycle in terms of valuation and volume for the crypto ecosystem.

Furthermore, spot bitcoin ETFs experienced their second-worst month in terms of flows since their launch. JPMorgan estimates that U.S. spot ETFs witnessed $662 million in sales over the month.